This invention relates to a disposable container in which samples can be prepared automatically or semi-automatically for analyses, such as the analyses of: blood or plasma samples for biomedical research or routine testing; pharmaceutical samples for production or research purposes; and more generally, samples requiring, for example, a plurality of routine chemical and/or mechanical treatments before analyses. This invention also relates to a method of preparing a sample for analysis in the disposable container.
Apparatus are known for facilitating the routine preparation by hand of samples for analyses. Typically, such apparatus have included a plurality of chambers for holding samples and chemical reagents and for mixing them together. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,913,790 and 4,237,096. However, such apparatus have not been adapted for automatically or semi-automatically preparing samples for analyses.
Apparatus are also known for automatically or semi-automatically preparing precisely measured and treated samples and delivering the samples to analysis equipment, such as liquid chromatographic equipment, See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,366,119, 4,363,782, 4,344,768, 3,929,411 and 3,860,393. However, such sample preparation apparatus have generally had to utilize relatively complicated means to conveying samples between various locations in the apparatus where different chemical and/or mechanical treatments are carried out before the samples are analyzed. This need to convey samples between various locations has inevitably made such apparatus more expensive to construct and operate. Ways have been sought, therefore, for simplifying and reducing the automatic or semi-automatic movement of samples within such apparatus.